Information regarding the business sector.
The dialogue between soybean producers and oilseed companies ended without an agreement on prices. Divisions and differences arise between small and large producers. The Santa Cruz-Beni road is totally blockaded, with eight points of conflict.
Workers took the Perembaise camp in a protest against China Railway Construction Corporation. The camp is located four kilometres from the road Rurrenabaque-Riberalta. Blockades were also recorded on the road. Workers demand that the Chinese company comply with Bolivian labour laws, and denounce the continued mistreatment of the Chinese personnel against Bolivian workers.
Google’s blocking of Huawei has impacted the sales of the Chinese mobile device in La Paz. Local vendors in La Paz said that the actions of Google have translated in a fall in sales of Chinese brands Huawei and “Honor”.
Bolivia has launched a cloud computing system called “Sovereign Cloud” with the aim of achieving technological sovereignty, announced the Ministry of Public Works. The project, similar to systems such as Dropbox or Google Drive, will allow state and private institutions to safely storage information on the internet. The system is already available and the government now is promoting it so private and state institutions can use it, said Public Works Minister, Oscar Coca.
Bolivian state sugar company San Buenaventura (EASBA) is looking for markets to export a 130,000 quintals-surplus of sugar and one potential buyer is Belgium. EASBA’s CEO, Ramiro Masanto, said that the company is currently negotiation with Belgian’s businessmen to export the sugar surplus production. He added that the company estimates to be able to export sugar by July or August.
The fall of the soybean prices to $210 per tonne worry the producers in Bolivia. Soybean production played an important role in the Bolivian economy, according to the president of the Bolivian Export Chamber, Oswaldo Barriga. He added that the oilseed producers expect the help of the Government to reduce the impact.
Peruvian businessmen from the manufacturing sector visited the cities of Cochabamba and Santa Cruz to establish commercial relations with Bolivian entrepreneurs. Peruvian companies specialising in equipment for the food industry, packaging and packing, construction materials, medical and pharmaceutical equipment and cosmetics, offered products and services in order to generate commercial strategic alliances.
The 8th Andean Business Meeting will be held in La Paz between 8 and 9 May. The Foreign Trade Vice-Minister, Benjamin Blanco, said that during the meeting the delegates will discuss ways to promote production and employment as well as the strengthening of trade among the countries of the Andean Community. Businessmen from the European Union will also attend the meeting.
The government announced that the phase of confrontation with the private sector is over. With a strong handshake, the vice-president, Álvaro García Linera, welcomed the new president of the Confederation of Private Entrepreneurs of Bolivia (CEPB) Luis Barbery. Regarding the economic model said that it requires some adjustments and proposed to work tirelessly to improve “business climate”. He proposed a critical path based on four axes: a) the best legal and political conditions to boost private investment; b) incentive to national production with quality at larger scales; c) provision of goods and services for our population; and d) implementation of efficient mechanisms to stimulate exports. García Linera proposed dialogue and agreed that the high bureaucracy is one of the worst enemies of business ventures, but made it clear that the tax issue is important to maintain balance in the public sector.
The business network in Bolivia grew 7% in 2018, reaching a total of 315.868 active companies, according to the Entrepreneurial Development Foundation (Fundempresa). 79% of the firms are unipersonal, 19% are limited companies and 1 are corporations.
